Of course, one of the things about liking video games or comics is that it's a little awkward to be the only one talking about them in a crowd. For all the stereotypes of grown men living in their parents' basements, geeks and nerds are relatively social creatures who enjoy talking about their interests with others. This is a very broad statement, of course, and the culture has grown so large that you could break them down into various groups and subgroups. And, of course, there really are the grown men with Anime plastering the walls of their parents' basements. However, I think the statement still holds, and we are at an age where many people do not find it hard to seek others that share their unique interests. Which is where Comic Con comes in and creates a venue for all of those people to meet in one giant madhouse.
Trying to describe Comic Con to someone who has never heard of it is a difficult task simply because so many have heard of it. At its basic level, San Diego Comic Con (usually abbreviated to SDCC) is a convention held every year at the San Diego Convention Center and showcases various brands of pop culture, entertainment, and personal creativity. It was started as a relatively small collection of exhibitors in 1970 as a way for people to gather, trade, and discuss comics and display their own work. It pulled roughly 300 people and lasted 3 days at the U.S. Grant Hotel. Through planning and plenty of interest, the convention grew, expanded, and eventually included entertainment of all types from films, Anime, books, television, comics, and more.
So, in order to describe what Comic Con is to someone who has never heard of it, you must describe just how much it grew since its humble origins in 1970. It is now the largest convention in the Americas and 4th in the world. In 2010, the estimated crowd was 130,000. Exhibitors include the largest companies in entertainment in the world, including the major motion picture studios, DC and Marvel Comics, countless independent artists, Mattel, Hasbro, LucasArts, and more. The ballrooms are now used to host massive panels in which fans can see their favorite film and television artists discuss, display, and announce titles as well as ask questions directly to the panel boards. The largest ballrooms, Ballroom 20 and Hall H, seat 4250 and 6700 respectively. The major studios use SDCC as a launching pad to announce or showcase titles often for the very first time. Some are even using it as a place to hold their world premieres. The event attracts people of all types, from those who just want to hop in and check out their favorite show to those who have turned it into a yearly ritual with its own traditions.
To say the least, Comic Con is massive. It is also very intimidating to a newcomer. I had always heard about SDCC, seen it displayed on the news, or heard about it from friends. However, it is a large undertaking and timing or costs had never worked out. This year, things changed and my friend Beth managed to go almost all Summer without having anyone buy her guest passes that came with her Trade Professional registration. It was do or die, and I plopped down the money without hesitation, knowing it was time for the pilgrimage that many nerds have turned the con into.
We managed to secure housing near the beach with family rather than stay at one of the nearby hotels. This was a mixed bag on the whole, and I learned quickly to weigh the positives and negatives of where you stay for the convention. First off, you need a crowd, which was certainly not a problem. Having more people in your room is almost a necessity of SDCC, and it's fairly easy to find people posting on forums looking for random people that know enough basic hygiene to share a room. However, while the beach house was amazing and we had great company, the distance was also a burden as we would not have access to a car while her family was using it. Also, not being able to drop stuff off or take a quick break became an issue very quickly. For this trip, it was worth it, but if planning to go, I would definitely save up enough for a hotel the next trip so long as it is reserved early to avoid the extraordinary $325/night charged as SDCC looms closer.
We drove down on Wednesday night, as her badge allowed access to Preview Night. This was probably the best thing about the trip, and securing that preview was extremely important. Preview Night is typically reserved for only a select amount of tickets and is used for people related to the industry to get a lay of the land or pick up items before the rest of the rush over the next four days. One of the most important parts of the convention are the SDCC Exclusives released by retailers. Oftentimes, these are comics, toys, gifts, etc. that can only be bought at the convention and sometimes in limited quantities. In our case, there was a Muppet Show silkscreen print from one of the retailers that was Exclusive and numbered only to 100. Without Preview Night, we would not have been able to pick up the print for our friend, as they sold out extremely quickly. Probably the favorite exclusive this year was a 22" Stay Puft action figure from Mattel, the largest action figure they have ever made.
So, after waiting in line for about 3 hours, we were let into the main exhibit hall. Even on PN, I could see just how large the scale was. The exhibit hall itself covers almost 526,000 sq.ft. Every bit was covered with booths from around the world. Even for the preview, there were plenty of people running around, trying to be first in line to certain retailers or displays. Many times the rest of the weekend, we would wish for the quietness of Preview Night, which already seems extremely busy to someone that has never been. Beth and I mostly made our way around trying to find a lay of the land and figure out where the main displays were. Most of the center areas were covered with the major exhibitors like Lionsgate, DC Comics, Summit Entertainment, etc. One of the largest was our Warner Bros. booth, which covered about 3,000 sq. ft. on two floors. Then, there was the section we called the Outer Rim, reserved for individual comic book stores or toy retailers to display their collections. This was much more similar to what most people think of when they think of a comic convention and was relatively calm for most of the week compared to the rest of the convention.
One of the best things about the convention are the free giveaways given to attendees. Because of the size of the con every year, all the major booths hand out free items in a massive marketing push to fans. Sometimes, they would be small items such as buttons. But, in other cases, they would be impressive items like unique USS Enterprise bottle openers or special in-game items from the video game companies. Probably the most anticipated very year are the gigantic Warner Bros. swag bags. The massive bags are handed out for free and display a few select WB franchises on them. They are also made of cloth/polyester and make a great way to carry the items people purchase at the con. We managed to get a couple of the highly coveted Justice League bags and would be subsequently asked at least five times while waiting in the opening line to trade for a different, lesser production bag. We made our way around finding the items we wanted to buy for friends or ourselves (usually related to the DC Comics Relaunch). After getting a lay of the land, we made our back to the beach house and began planning for another day.
The rest of the con was much more typical of what to expect: crowds, exhaustion, tons of free stuff, random celebrities, and some of the best costumes you'll ever see. Probably one of the cooler aspect of the convention is what is called "cosplay," short for Costume Play. It's basically a great excuse to act like Halloween has arrived and probably the main reason I went down. Attendees of the nerdiest caliber will sometimes work months on a costume to wear based off their favorite show, video game, movie, whatever. While there are certain plenty of people who should not be wearing the costumes they do, there are others who are extremely impressive. As a photographer, that was the biggest draw for me and taking pictures of the costumes was such an overwhelming task I ended up not taking as many as I wanted in hindsight. We also did a little cosplay of our own, with Beth dressing as the new Lara Croft (so new, the Square-Enix booth didn't even have a poster for her yet) and myself as Cobb from Inception. We both dressed as Nerd Herders for the Chuck panel on Saturday.
We also grabbed a ton of great items over the course of SDCC. There were plenty of buttons, of course, but the giveaways were sometimes very creative. Lionsgate handed out the mockingbird pins from Hunger Games in honor of the new movie. DC Comics handed out Wayne Casino poker chips that were weight-accurate and in different denominations every night. Probably the best giveaway, though, was from the ABC Pan Am booth. In honor of the new show, we were given a "Pan Am boarding pass" for a specific time later in the day. Upon arrival, we were shuttled into a 6-seat airplane fuselage that was actually a tiny motion simulator. The stewardesses gave their speeches just like an actual airline stewardess before we watched a short trailer for the upcoming show. After "landing" we were each given an official, free Pan Am dufflebag! Beth was planning on using it as a new gym bag before we even left the airplane.
Most of our panels were done on the Saturday block in Ballroom 20. We woke up bright an early for our beloved "Chuck." After working on the WB lot and experiencing the cast and crew firsthand, we had to show our support for their final Comic Con panel. It was highly emotional near the end, but we had a great time seeing the entire cast lined up and chatting away like old friends. We decided to stay and eventually sat through the premiere of Terra Nova (which was good and I really hope lasts), Futurama/Simpsons, and Family Guy (which was hilarious). We also managed to watch the premiere of Batman: Year One on one evening and were highly impressed. As always, DC Animation is a notch above the rest on telling their superhero stories. Time to get the movies up to speed now!
On the whole, I had a wonderful time and could not have asked for a better experience. Beth was excellent company and we accomplished most of what we had planned to do. As mentioned earlier, I would probably stay at a hotel for the experience next time, though. Also, we could have used the bag check a lot more than we actually did. Thankfully, we used it well when we realized it was there and kept most of our food in my camera bag for pickup whenever we were hungry. The convention as whole is truly something that is hard describe and must really be experienced. I highly look forward to next year and hope to have a much more impressive costume by the time it rolls around.
Here's my Google+ album of photos for those interested!
